Header Image: A tour group going up into the Atwood Sphere at the 2019 Adler After Dark: A Night in the Afrofuture event. Update: This blog was revised in February 2024 to include information about Niyah and the Multiverse. What’s Afrofuturism? Great question! We asked leading Afrofuturism expert, Ytasha Womack, to fill us in! Womack […]

Growing up in Cicero—a Chicago suburb that shares a border with the city’s Lawndale neighborhood—Theresa Melo never really thought about going to college. Now, she’s a senior at Agnes Scott College, just outside Atlanta, using radio waves to see through the murky parts of our galaxy. Of course, this change of heart didn’t happen overnight. […]

This winter, we’re stopping to #LookUp and celebrate the mysteries and magnetism of our closest celestial neighbor, the Moon. The Moon has been a source of wonder for all of human history. It has been a muse for poetry, art, and epic stories. As people studied and recorded the patterns of the Moon’s movements, they […]

Changes are coming to Chicago’s nights. The city is replacing streetlights with a new generation of lighting. These new lights will change how our neighborhoods look and how we view the sky. Will new lighting worsen light pollution? How can we help keep the stars visible for Chicago? Learn how the Adler Planetarium is helping […]

Author: Chris Bresky (Former Teen Programs Manager) A year ago, an incredibly common thing happened. A large meteor entered our atmosphere over the Midwest, exploded, and rained down hundreds of meteorites into Lake Michigan. Thousands of meteorites fall to Earth every year; this on paper isn’t all that astounding. What’s even more common is that […]

On May 9, 2018, Dr. Daniel P. Schrag, Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering at Harvard University, was a guest lecturer as part of our Kavli Fulldome Lecture Series. Dr. Schrag discussed the increase of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere due to burning coal, oil, and gas, as well as how it represents an unprecedented […]